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China Full Steam for Clean Sweep
China has fourth gold medal to her credit as Qin Zhijian and Yang Ying beat South Koreans Oh Sang Eun and Kim Moo Kyo in the mixed doubles final at the World Table Tennis Championships on Friday.
Qin/Yang handed a 21-15, 21-15, 21-15 defeat to Kim and Oh, who was playing with an injury to his right shoulder.
China won the men's and team events last week and has secured the men's doubles title with Wang Liqin/Yan Sen to play Kong Linghui/Liu Guoliang in the all-Chinese final.
In men's singles event, five Chinese stormed into the quarter- finals as only one European avoid Asian slaughter.
Former world number one Vladimir Samsonov of Belarus sent table tennis legend Jan-Ove Waldner packing, revenging a 0-3 loss to the Swede in the 1997 world championship final.
The 35-year-old two-time world champion refused to answer whether he would retire, saying he had been "asked this 200 times" and would consider the matter after a rest.
A Swedish official with the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) predicted Waldner to return for next world championships.
"What can he do if he quits table tennis?" asked the official.
Chinese ITTF official Yao Zhenxu agreed with the Swedish official, quipping: "Waldner is wise in table tennis and clumsy in driving. He even couldn't pass driving test. I don't think he will call it quits."
"If he retires, that will be a huge loss for the sport," he added.
Nine Europeans went into the men's singles fourth round in the morning. Just one survived.
"The first two games were over very quickly," said Waldner. "I tried to get back into it in the third game but his forehand was very good."
Samsonov, currently ranked eighth in the world, said: "I was in very top spirits at the beginning today, but maybe Waldner wasn't as good as at the Sydney Olympic Games. Also, when I was leading 2- 0, anything was possible."
Jorgen Persson (Sweden), Zoran Primorac (Croatia), Adrian Crisan (Romania), Timo Boll (Germany), Jorg Rosskopf (Germany), Werner Schlager (Austria), Patrick Chila (France) all fell to their Asian rivals.
In contrast, Chinese Wang Liqin, Kong Linghui, Ma Lin, Liu Guoliang and Liu Guozheng and Kong Linghui, ranked in the world top six, all reached the quarter-finals.
Two Chinese players lost in the women's singles quarter-finals on Friday -- to their higher ranked teammates.
World number one Wang Nan ejected fellow Chinese Li Nan 21-13, 21-12, 21-15, setting up a semifinal clash with world number three Zhang Yining, a five-set winner over Niu Jianfeng in an all- Chinese quarter-final.
Zhang, who squandered a two-set lead to lose to Wang Nan in last championship final, outlasted the 25th-ranked Niu 21-14, 17- 21, 21-18, 17-21, 21-12.
Chinese world number 14 Lin Ling blanked Chinese-born Austrian Liu Jia 21-17, 21-18, 23-21.
In the other quarter-final, Kim Yun Mi from the Democratic People's Republic of Korea trounced Romanian Mihaela Steff 22-20, 21-11, 21-15.
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